PaoloBillsFanFromItaly

"Not the game, not the game, we're talking about practice man, how silly is that, we're talking about practice man, we're talking about...PRACTICE???" A. Iverson

"Mamma butta la pasta!" (with a strong american accent) From the Illinois Native Dan Peterson, who had a great basketball career as a coach here in Italy and become famous as a commentator of italian basketball and NBA. He used to say the famous catchphrase at the decising moment of the game, even if there was still time to play, the game was over and everyone could tell their mom they would be ready to have lunch!

You cannot develop herd immunity to this epidemy without sacrificing too many lives. Too many people will need artificial breathing and there is no enough treatment for everybody. And I am talking about people in the 30/50 years of age. Now that there are BIG hot beds that went over control the only way is the lockdown italian way, also UK understood this and after he told the worst things about how we managed the infections he is simplying copying our laws. After the big hot beds will be over, you can copy what Korea made, that is trace EVERY case and lockdown only the positve spots with the use of local mass testing and technology to follow the chains of infection. Italy is experimenting this with success in small centers in the countryside.

There are a lot of reasons of the italian outbreak, one can be the one you posted. In my opinion one of the main reason of the spread is how the problem was faced by private health care at the beginnig. There is some debate here in Italy, but I personally think his is the crucial point. Health care in Italy is mostly public, but in the latest years, lot of "cuts" were made, and laws were enacted to regionalize it. Long story short, in Lombardia, the "epicenter" region, there are a lot of private structures. When the epidemy was at the beginning the public stuctures closed their ordinary departement and converted them to treat the covid. All the visits that were not "matter of life and death" were postponed to face the epidemy, in order to keep the structures free for the covid an for not risking of infecting the patients. Some parts of ordinary departments were kept open, but they were completely isolated from the covid departments. On the contrary, the private structures didn't want to postpone or cancel the "ordinary visits" because the did not want to lose money, so they kept all the departments open. Covid patients came to the structures and spreaded the disease. There are a lot of evidence here in Italy that public stuctures followed the protocols in a better way, while the private ones trasformend into covid "cores".

Police and military forces are controlling everywhere. Of course there is always possibility of avoiding controls but the penalities in case of breaking the laws are serious.

Yes, extreme measures are beginning to give results, I was expecting the lowering of the cases one week before (15 days after the decree) so I was very pessimistic until today. Today it seems that the lowering trend is for real.

Yes I am ok thank you, from that day I worked from home. Never left home except for bring out thrash and buy food. One sunday I left home before the dawn to go running in the mountains close to home. Now running is forbidden too, so I make gym in my living room to try to keep in shape Speaking of covid, here in Liguria the situation is under control, but in Lombardia the thing is very serious, maybe we are close to the peak, I hope so.

Ciao lokkines, di dove sei???? Spero tutto bene da te, qui a Genova la situazione è ancora sotto controllo, ma ci prepariamo all'onda. Ho scritto anche un post qua sul mio ultimo giorno in ufficio. GO BILLS!!! Ciao lokkines, di dove sei???? Spero tutto bene da te, qui a Genova la situazione è ancora sotto controllo, ma ci prepariamo all'onda. Ho scritto anche un post qua sul mio ultimo giorno in ufficio. GO BILLS!!!

I think this is only a hope, but no scientific evidence. For sure hot weather conditions are less favorable for virus spread, windows are always open, people don't cough, sniff... I don't know if hot "kills" the virus for itself.

Lombardia hospital are close to maxum capacity. "Intensive therapy" capacity is 25% full, nationwide. Patients will be send to other regions, hoping that epidemy won't spread too quicky. I think that now if a person would have, let's say, a car accident in Milan, he should be transferred to another region to receive treatment, if he stays alive in the meantime. It's serious. In my opinion in ten days things will getting better, but I don't know if the thing will be over, in Hubei it took 48 days of COMPLETE SHUTDOWN.

I'm not sick, just hands got very dry for frequent washing. The cream I bought is working, thank you!

Another interest thing, my hands back have become drier and drier and full of bruises and cuts. This was simply due to...frequent washes... I bought a cream in pharmacy and things are getting better, I did't know my skin was so delicate...

Covid attacks the throat, the bronchus, like the seasonal flu. In the worst case it attacks the pneumonia. No need to be worried about toilet paper shortage...

Unfortunately yesterday night many people from Milan area avoided controls and came to Southern Italy, where their parents live. They think they are safer to run from the "core" of the epidemy, but instead they are bringing the disease to their beloved ones. This is not good news. It's like in USA people from Seattle would come back to Oregon, Wyoming, Montana... No problem of toilet paper here Only italian one is slimmer than american one, in USA most of the stuff is bigger...

Yes stores are getting food without any problems, people understood this and they don't leave the stores empty like before. Elderly people are helped by their younger parents or by community associations, scouts, churches and so on.

Laws and rules must be followed in the whole national territory, without exceptions, but the health care emergency right now is only in Lombardia region. In Florence there is no emergency right now, but the infections for sure are destined to grow, the effects of the decree will begin to show the consequences in quite some time. My opinion is that Italy took the most dratic countermeasures in Europe, second only to South Korea and China in the world, at the moment I think that Italy can be safer than most countries.

I take the elevator to go to my office. The elevator is designed to carry 8 people, but in these days only two people are allowed. When people are in, they don’t talk, they don’t open their mouth, not even to say “Ciao”, and “Arrivederci”. Good manners are abandoned for the sake of the common good. Today a nurse measured our temperature and gave us protective masks. Here is my colleague working with the mask: On the way back I decided to take the train. I have two laptops with me and two copybooks full of notes and I don’t want to walk back home. I am confident that trains will be empty. At the station there is a police checkpoint, everybody must go through and answer policemen questions. I show my certificate and my Id card and they let me inside. As I supposed, the train is almost empty. Now I have to go up to my hill. I decide not to walk up the “creuza” like I usually do because of the luggage I am carrying and because it is heavy raining. I decide to take the bus, there is some people inside, I don’t feel totally safe. It’s cold and raining outside but I decide to open the bus windows. People understand and do not complain. I get home, I wash my hands, I change my clothes and I disinfect the cell phone. My mum texts me, she wants me at her home for dinner. Every day she invite me for dinner, my parents are 69 and 73 years old, I told her that I won’t come. We will meet again when this thing will be over. So folks, that’s it, I hope you appreciate this. Here there is no panic, only some anxiety and boredom, but I am sure that if everybody will do his thing, this pandemy will be over. And please be careful, I think that all parts of the world are facing the same adversity and should be headed toward the same direction!

Only a Pharmacy is open, its sign is blinking I take a picture of this little square, because it is always full of people, while today is totally empty. People waiting for the bus. Public transportation is not shut down, but it can be dangerous these days, wearing gloves and masks is strongly recommended. I arrive to my town main square, I just see one person, can you spot him? Post offices are open, like every service of public utility, but in every closed environment open to the public, only a few people at time is allowed. The others are wating outside, far from each other by at least one meter and a half. This security distance must be always respected, when two pedestrian cross their way, they must “maneuver” to keep the distance. When people has to cross the road at the zebras, the have the keep the distance too. Also tobacco shops are open, this caused some protests. Government earn a lot of money by tobacco selling due to taxes. Anyway, this shop is small so only one person is allowed inside, wait outside girl. I arrive in my building, the typical downtown skyscraper. At building entrance, a disinfectant dispenser has been installed. Wash your hands and don’t bring the virus in fellas!

Hi everybody, I decided to open this topic to give you a witness of the “ordinary” life in Italy under the “Stay at Home” legislative decree to fight the spread of Covid19. I just want to tell you about my day, with few words and photos. Because I can only attach one photo per post, the report will be split in several small sub posts. I kindly ask you not to reply until my final “subpost” is finished. Ok let’s start. Today is my last day at work in office. I work in a industrial automation company and from next Monday I will work from home. In all this week I decided to go to work on foot, in order to avoid public transportation. It is about a 40 minutes walk. I exit my apartment bringing with me a document that states where I live and where I work. People is allowed to move only to go to work, to buy food, or for strict necessities. Like many citizens of Genoa my neighbourhood is upon a hill, in order to go to downtown I take a “creuza”, the typical pedestrian red bricked street from my city. There are a lot this old and steep narrow paths in my town. Usually I met several people going to downtown like me, but today I literally met no one… Oh well, I lied, I met someone…meoooowwww… Now I am in Via Balbi, this is the core of the humanistic university center in Genoa. Law school, history, literature, politics are here, and usually this street is crowded with students. Schools have been closed since last week of february, all bars, restaurants are closed by the decree.

Oh yes, in my city too folks

https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/embarrassing-bodies-dr-christian-jessen-coronavirus-italy-siesta-comment-a4386371.html The most stupid thing is all of that is that "siesta" is a spanish word.

Spain, Champions League match played at "closed doors": Valencia supporters: Triple facepalm...

I agree with these points. But the post is missing the main point. The virus is spread worldwide and everybody has to address the problem.

I know all of this stuff, and you are right being confused because the thing is not so linear. When first news of coronavirus arrived in Italy the chinese community was treated like pestilence spreaders. Chinese kids were asked to get out public buses for example, and no one entered in chinese restaurants. By the way, I have a close friend engaged with a chinese girl, they own a chinese restaurant and they were forced to close (like many others) and I don't know if they will open again. These demostrations you posted refer to that period, and beware, because it is very important, this period was BEFORE the 25th of January, aka the Chinese New Years Eve. So the italian-chinese community was neglected just because "the shape of their eyes", most of them are born in Italy or they did not visit their homecountry for years! Then the 25th of January came, Italy at first decided for a forced quarantine of chinese coming back from New Year Eve, Chinese premier complained (because of business, of course), Italy changed its mind to "voluntary quarantine". This episode changed everything because now the italian-chinese were the first to be scared to death, because they knew what was happening in their homecountry, while Italians underrated the issue. I repeat, I don't exclude that chinese returning from New Year Eve was a factor, I say that was a concurring factor and certainly it was not THE factor. And I want to be clear, chinese people begun to behave in a way that we are FORCED to behave now, way before Italians, because the knew what was coming. So they self isolated, wear masks, and so on., and I repeat, we mocked and used to have fun of them After this the media and politicians declarations were up and down. After the first cases there was THE TERROR. People begun not to go spend money, so, ok, this is JUST A FLU, for the sake of economy! People went on with their life like it was nothing. Of course everybody is confused, media and politicians handled the thing in the worst case possible! Until the hospitals begun to be full of people attached to machines. Now we are under laws that limit our freedom. But I think that government took the right decision, I don't want my parents to die. And italians are behaving in a good way and collaborating.